http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/uttar-pradesh-mayawati-stokes-dalit-pride-bsp/1/155246.html
Mail Today, October 17, 2011 | UPDATED 14:06 IST
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati stokes Dalit pride
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's speech inaugurating the Rs 685
crore National Dalit Memorial and Green Garden in Noida was
many-layered. It was primarily a call to arms to the Dalit community
to once again line up behind her in the run-up to the state assembly
elections. But it was also a declaration that Dalit power had reached
the gates of the national capital, Delhi. She repeatedly stressed the
importance of the Dalit Memorial in the context of the many monuments
and memorials that lay on the west bank of the Yamuna river that
separates Noida from New Delhi.
It was clear from the speech that she viewed the Congress party as her
principal threat. Though she had trounced all other parties in the
last assembly polls in 2007, the Congress' performance in the Lok
Sabha elections of 2009, where the party won as many as 21 out of 80
seats, has engendered a healthy caution in the Dalit leader.
Ms Mayawati used the speech to position herself against corruption and
criminalisation. Notwithstanding the charges she faces herself, she
took the opportunity to welcome the campaigns against corruption
launched by Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev.
But when it comes to the next assembly elections, Ms Mayawati will not
have to answer to the media or a select gathering, but the people of
her state. They will decide whether or not she has fought against
criminalisation and corruption.
More important, they are bound to ask questions about the development
of the state, especially with the recent dynamism being displayed in
neighbouring Bihar. She may not find it easy to simply pass on the
blame to past governments because people are aware now that change can
come in their lives in a matter of years, should a capable leader push
for it.
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